Given the high morbidity, mortality, and the large societal burden associated with cardiovascular diseases, there are numerous approaches for assessing cardiovascular health. One of these approaches determines whether a patient has atherosclerosis by measuring carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). Atherosclerosis is a condition where fat, cholesterol, and other substances build up in the walls of arteries and form hard structures called plaques. Over time, these plaques can block arteries and cause symptoms and problems through the body, such as aneurysms, plaque ruptures, blood clots, heart attacks, and strokes. Current studies have shown that carotid intima-media thickness can be used as an independent predictor of future mortality, myocardial infarction, and stroke risk.
The carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) can be measured using B-mode ultrasound sonography. Such measurement provides a non-invasive, sensitive, and highly reproducible technique for cardiovascular risk stratification. However, measuring the carotid intima-media thickness with B-mode ultrasound sonography requires a precise measurement of the thickness of the intimal and medial layers of the carotid artery that can be tedious, time consuming, and demands specialized expertise and experience. For example, a sonographer uses a high-resolution B-mode ultrasound transducer to obtain image data of the carotid artery. The sonographer then manually draws a region of interest in the obtained image data that includes the walls of the carotid artery. Using this image data, the sonographer can determine the carotid intima-media thickness by measuring the distance between the lumen-intima interface and the media-adventitia interface. Performing this measurement requires significant time for interpreting the image data and considerable experience to achieve accurate and reproducible measurements using current approaches. This is particularly troublesome with the high demand and increasing volume of CIMT examinations.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems, and media for determining carotid intima-media thickness that overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art.